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AiMesh AX86U main + one XT8. Should I enable Roaming Assistant?

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Qbcd

Regular Contributor
So I have an AiMesh system with an AX86U main router and one node. My node was an AC66U B1, which I recently replaced with an XT8.

After I started using the XT8, I noticed that a lot more clients were connecting to it vs. the main router. Pretty much only the devices that are in the same room as the AX86U are connecting to it, everything else, if it has a choice, it connects to the XT8, unless the RSSI is quite bad. Devices are not necessarily getting a bad signal - judging from the Client list, almost everything has at least 3/4 bars, only a couple of devices with 2/4 bars, and the data links are decent, but with the AC66U B1 roaming seemed to be a bit more balanced.

I think the reason for the difference is that the XT8 has a second client-facing 5 GHz band, and it's in the lower range of 5 GHz, so perhaps AiMesh gives it preference for that reason. The downside is that it's only a 2x2, whereas the AX86U is a 4x4, and also doesn't have to hop the signal obviously.

I had disabled Roaming Assistant with the AC66U B1 node, it just seemed to work fine without it and I didn't want to complicate things, or perhaps I'd read it's best turned off, I don't remember... But it was off.

But now I'm thinking about turning it on to give the main router a bit more clients. My question is, should I turn it on? AiMesh seems to have *some* kind of built-in roaming assist, it definitely switches clients around and doesn't leave them on the same AP until signal drops off.

So will enabling Roaming Assistant in the Professional settings help? And also, maybe a stupid question, but if I set Roaming Assistant to -65 dBm, will it drop clients at that threshold even if there's no alternative? Or will it only drop them if there's an alternative with a better signal? If the former, that's clearly terrible for the edge of the network.

Also FYI, I have SmartConnect enabled, and it's not an option to disable it.

Wrote too long a post again... I never learn.
 
I'm a bit confused ... is this wired or wireless backhaul? If the latter, what combinations of channels are you using exactly? The reason I ask is that AIMesh seems to insist on using an XT8's 5GHz-2 radio for wireless backhaul, and as far as I can tell that one will only operate in the high 5GHz band, so that doesn't seem to square with the comments you made.

In any case though, the best answer is probably "try it and see". Wireless roaming behavior is controlled by the clients in the end, not the AP, so whether anything changes and whether it's for the better is going to depend largely on your client devices and your usage patterns for them. Some people have certainly found that the roaming assistant doesn't help them, but I don't think that's the universal experience.
 
I'm a bit confused ... is this wired or wireless backhaul? If the latter, what combinations of channels are you using exactly? The reason I ask is that AIMesh seems to insist on using an XT8's 5GHz-2 radio for wireless backhaul, and as far as I can tell that one will only operate in the high 5GHz band, so that doesn't seem to square with the comments you made.

In any case though, the best answer is probably "try it and see". Wireless roaming behavior is controlled by the clients in the end, not the AP, so whether anything changes and whether it's for the better is going to depend largely on your client devices and your usage patterns for them. Some people have certainly found that the roaming assistant doesn't help them, but I don't think that's the universal experience.
Oh it's wireless backhaul, using channel 100. On the XT8 I can't select the fronthaul channel when it's an AiMesh node, but it seems to default to 52. The XT8's backhaul band can only do 100-140, and the fronthaul, only 36-64.

I don't think Roaming Assistant works, that's why I turned it off, I remember now. There are reports that it doesn't work for many people, and that was my experience as well, and I didn't want it to clash with AiMesh's built-in roaming features.

But maybe they've fixed it. I'm leaning toward leaving it off. I did some tests with binding clients to my main router and then unbinding them to see if they would roam and it seems to switch them if they are around -65 dBm or lower and there's a better alternative. What seems to be less consistent is SmartConnect, it switches lower signal clients between 2.4 and 5 GHz a little too much... But I gotta use it.
 
What seems to be less consistent is SmartConnect, it switches lower signal clients between 2.4 and 5 GHz a little too much... But I gotta use it.

Why do you have to use Smart Connect?

OE
 
I don't really want to get into it, but basically I have to have a single SSID, it's not for any technical reason.

My clients don't mind Smart Connect disabled and using same SSID for each band... single SSID.

OE
 
My clients don't mind Smart Connect disabled and using same SSID for each band... single SSID.

OE
Hm ok. I think that complicates things with AiMesh and then you'd have to use Roaming Assistant. Maybe I'll try it to see if it makes a difference.
 
The info I've seen is that Smart Connect encourages clients to roam between different bands of the same AP, while Roaming Assistant is kind of a last-ditch measure to get a client to roam to a different AP if its signal gets too low. Well-designed clients shouldn't need Roaming Assistant.

What well-designed clients do need is standard 802.11k/v roaming support. The real question (which isn't answered in any material I've seen) is whether ASUS implements 802.11k/v and if so which of these different switches enables it --- or, perhaps, it's enabled all the time. It's not clear to me that AIMesh offers anything beyond a way to configure all your nodes from one GUI.
 
The info I've seen is that Smart Connect encourages clients to roam between different bands of the same AP, while Roaming Assistant is kind of a last-ditch measure to get a client to roam to a different AP if its signal gets too low. Well-designed clients shouldn't need Roaming Assistant.

What well-designed clients do need is standard 802.11k/v roaming support. The real question (which isn't answered in any material I've seen) is whether ASUS implements 802.11k/v and if so which of these different switches enables it --- or, perhaps, it's enabled all the time. It's not clear to me that AIMesh offers anything beyond a way to configure all your nodes from one GUI.
Right, regarding Smart Connect, that's a feature I'd like to keep, to encourage clients to change band if they need to. Roaming Assistant isn't directly related to that, however I've read that if you don't have Roaming Assistant enabled, roaming can break if you disable Smart Connect... Even if you're using AiMesh (as far as I remember, it gets complicated). I don't want to rely on the clients being smart.

From my research, Asus routers support 802.11k/v, but not r. And I believe since AiMesh 2 was implemented, k/v are used in AiMesh, but don't quote me on that. And yes I'm not sure how SC or Roaming Assistant affects it, but AiMesh definitely has some proprietary roaming method which seems to work decently well for me, so I don't want to disable it or enable Roaming Assistant on top of it.

Speaking of Smart Connect, there's a weird glitch where if I open the Clients list, my computer (that I'm using the access the router) gets bumped down to the 2.4 GHz network for some reason. As soon as I close the Clients list it goes back to 5 GHz. Happens every time.
 
Try disabling SC and RA. :)

OE
 

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